The Devil's Story
by Faust VII
Summary: Dumbledore had been correct. Love was the greatest weapon. It had set him free after all. Oneshot. Darkish.


**I Do Not Own Harry Potter**

.-.

Albus watched as the smoke curled up into the air, shifting and snaking it's way into spirals and lines that made patterns in the air. He could sense the small spark of magic in the smoke and winced at the show of wandless magic. To do something so small and intricate without words or wand showed great power and great control. Power was dangerous, but control was deadly.

Green eyes burned from behind dark lashes, watching the every twitch of his muscles. Pale fingers pulled the long thin pipe from full lips and another swirl of smoke joined the ones already in the air, creating more dusty patterns in the gloom.

"Albus, Albus, Albus."

Albus almost winced at how slowly the man drawled his name, moulding each word on his tongue before letting it escape. The emotion behind it was bland, unsurprised, and almost bored.

"Why are you bothering me, _Albus?_"

Albus did wince at the mocking tone he was addressed with.

"We….we want to invite you to join the Order of the Phoenix."

There was a moment of silence before the man gave a short laugh, then another, then another, until he was screaming with laughter. The hand holding the pipe was thrown over his eyes as he leaned right back and practically howled with laughter.

"Harry, this isn't a laughing matter." Albus tried sternly.

Harry cut off immediately and looked back at him, peering at him with half lidded eyes, lips pulled back in a tooth showing grin.

"No I suppose not." He said lightly, his tone telling Albus he thought differently then his words. "Why do you want me to join your _club_?"

Albus winced once again, wishing Harry would stop mocking him with mere words.

"We thought you would like to join our side of the battle."

"Oh, and why would I ever want to fully enter the battle?" Harry chuckled inhaling softly on his pipe again.

"Because you're a target." Albus said bluntly. "Voldemort will be coming after you."

Harry gave another snort of laughter.

"Albus, do you know when I pulled out of this war, when I officially gave up and said screw the lot of you?"

Albus stayed silent.

"Last year truly, but it was 1999 when I first started to decide." Harry breathed softly, the smoke curling into the number. "My doubts first started when Voldemort killed my godfather. I realized for everything I had put into this war, I was getting nothing. Not that one fights a battle between good and evil to gain something, but I wasn't even getting recognition from my own side. I was called a liar and an attention seeking psychopath. Every where I went the government tried to foil my plans and even my own side wouldn't listen to me. I realized, when Sirius died, that I was fighting a war where I would loose myself. But then suddenly it was proved that Voldemort had come back to life and suddenly I was the hero again."

Harry sneered at nothing, eyes glazed as if lost in memory.

"But that didn't mean I was free to fight, oh no. First I needed to _help_ the government. I needed to be a poster boy. And then no one would listen to me when I said Draco Malfoy was plotting something dangerous. Of course, when that was proved when the Death Eaters attacked, I was suddenly left with a task. I had to hunt down Voldemort's Horocruxs. A sixteen year old by was suddenly expected to trapeze around the wilderness to find these forbidden items, which he didn't know the appearance of the whereabouts of. That failed horribly. Because by the time we had tracked down the first two, Voldemort had caught on, gathered up the rest and created another couple and sent them all around the world. So we came back to try and help with the others. That didn't work so well. We were just _children_, what could we do?" Harry's voice got high and mocking, a frown marring his face. "So they hid us away, because the school was under control of the Death Eaters. That didn't work because they hid us in places that the Death Eaters knew about. Hermione died when Grimmauld place was attacked and Ron died when the Burrow was burnt. I barely escaped."

There was another stretch of silence.

"My two friends, gone." Harry whispered. "All that was left of Ron was ash, but Hermione, they left her body for me to find."

Albus couldn't help but let his eyes flicker over the large portrait set above Harry. Hermione Granger smiled out at him, throat slashed and bleeding, one eye socket empty. The rest was hidden under a beautiful burgundy dress that hadn't always been burgundy. The second portrait, of Ron Weasely, grinned at him through flames that had consumed him, spreading burns across his body.

"The Death Eaters were nice enough to use Dark Magic to make portraits of them, even after their death. Sadly such a spell cast after they're dead means the portrait looks like what they appeared when they died." Harry smiled up at the portraits. "They look as happy as always. Of course, it helped a great deal when I dragged the Death Eaters who had killed them here and killed them right in front of the portraits."

"You said you escaped." Albus breathed, trying to get back to what was turning out to be more of a story then an explanation.

"Oh, yes. I escaped." Harry sighed turning back to Albus and lifting his pipe. "And the Order hid me at an Order Member's house. Fools. Voldemort knew the only place to hide me was in the homes of Order members. And the only Order members with wards good enough to hide me weren't all secret members. They were actually quite well known. Moody was killed trying to buy me time to escape and escape I did, by a hair's width. By now, Luna and Neville had been killed. The last of my friends."

Harry's eyes drifted over to one of the man shelves in the room and Albus followed them only to quickly turn away. On the shelf was what looked like a large plant box, filled, all purple and green vines and leaves with bright red flowers. Blood roses. They only grew out of a corpse and drank blood.

"Neville always loved his plants so I thought, why not let him become one." Harry smiled softly blowing out a swirl of smoke in the shape of a flower. "And Luna, well Luna was always an odd one. She and her family had odd family magic too. I got to her when she was just about gone and helped her finish her death spell."

The statue of a young girl, no more then seventeen smiled at him. The smooth stone was carved into a perfect likeness of Luna Lovegood. She was beautiful, even as a statue, looking dreamy and whimsical. Twisted into the from of the throne she sat on where other people, mouths open and screaming in horror, pain, and terror. She looked like a queen on a throne of the damned.

"I most definitely enjoyed her spell." Harry smiled. "That it took all her killers with her was just a bonus. Now she watches over me."

Albus winced and turned from the statue and the blood plants. There were other such things littered about the room on shelves and walls. Smaller portraits and bobbles and Albus knew they all were from the dead. Even the large pile of cushions Harry lounged on were something. Albus was quite sure they were made of the hides and fur of any creature or animagus that had dared fight against the man. Albus wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole which was why he was sitting in a conjured wooden chair.

"Anyways," Harry dismissed, "I fled from Moody's, back to the abandoned Grimmauld. The Death Eaters had gutted it but left it because it was in Muggle London and none of them would ever live so close to the _filthy beats_. Left with time, because no one knew where I was and because the wards around Grimmauld still stood and hid me, I started to work. I fixed this place up, rebuilding walls, floors, and room. I snuck into Diagon Alley and took my gold secretly from Gringotts with the help a goblin by the name of Griphook. We're still quite good friends. He was a great source of knowledge for torture and attacking. Sadistic but knowledgeable. And I needed that knowledge. After I finished rebuilding this place I hired some goblins and curse breakers and such and had the best wards placed on it, making it almost invincible. And then I sought revenge."

Albus released a breath knowing how that had turned out. He hadn't seen any of it of course, but there were stories. Stories of a green eyed devil hitting the Death Eaters like an enraged storm. Certain one had been caught and killed in the most gruesome, painful, of ways, and then their bodies left in front of the Ministry, impaled on spears and pikes. For a brief period of time in the war, the most feared participant had been the one thought of as the Light Side's Hero. Harry Potter had showed the world he was not all light. He had terrified the spit out of everyone and become the Death Eater's worse nightmare because he fought fire with fire, but where as their fire burned red, his had been hot white and consumed them.

But then one day, he'd just stopped. Said he was done, had killed everyone he wanted to. Said he'd gotten his revenge and was so sorry he had scared everyone. He'd returned to the Order's protection and he had been a normal person. Everyone had thought it was over, their savoir back. No one had asked questions in case he turned into the 'Devil' again. They acted as if that was a different Harry, one that had been killed because they couldn't afford to alienate the newly cooperating hero.

"I know what you're thinking." Harry whispered, breaking him from his thoughts, green eyes glowing as they looked at him.

"Then would you answer my question of why?" Albus asked calmly. "You were the Devil for a while, and then you were suddenly…normal."

"Normal is not a word I use about myself." Harry chuckled leaning back into his pillow. "But you are correct. Funny how I went from being the Devil to a_ normal_ person."

Harry leaned back and inhaled on his pipe, blowing out a cloud of smoke that twisted into a woman's form.

"Ginny Weasely came to me one day, sought me out, said she had knowledge I would like. So I met with her. We shared some drinks, because I wanted to remember what friendship felt like. She was the last reminder of my school days. My last classmate pretty much by this time. And the more time I spent with her that evening the more I realized how much I _loved_ her. She was beautiful, strong, fiery, passionate, she was everything I wanted in a woman."

Albus stared at him.

"I slept with her that night. And the night after, and after. I returned to the Order because she wanted me to and I couldn't refuse her something so simple. She said I had gotten all the revenge I needed and I agreed with her. I became _normal_ again. It was like she had tamed my wild spirit. Nine months after our first night together she had our first child. James Sirius Potter. I was so happy. Ginny had a child now. Ginny had what she wanted. We got married, in the midst of war. And then nine months later again, we had a daughter. Lily Luna Potter. And again, nine months later we had Albus Severus Potter."

Albus gave a slight smile but it vanished as Harry scowled. He released another cloud of smoke and a necklace appeared.

"I knew Voldemort would be after Ginny's children. They were mine of course so they would be at the top of his list. And Ginny would be so heartbroken if they died. So I took them all to the goblins and paid for three necklaces, wove with the finest wards and protection spells. I asked the goblins to help me find anything and everything that could help make them safer. The goblins are a surly race but they were neutral and had very long reaches into the world. They are the greatest business men. And even if moist have forgotten, they are also some of the greatest magic users in the world. They rule the field of wards and protections and battle magic. And their healers are nothing to dismiss either. The children got the best protection, which saved their lives many times. But because of that the spells had to be renewed every three years. So we went back once every three years. Until James was twenty and lily was nineteen and Albus was eighteen. I went with them every time because while the goblins were neutral in the war, they liked me for some odd reason and as such I usually got much better faster service. Such like did not pass onto my children and Lily was terrified of the poor creatures, so I went with them.

The war was still going on and we had a bit of a guard, but the war had been stretched out over forty years now, only the generations above my grandparents had been born to a world without war. We were lucky, we got to live in a brief period of peace. The generations below us could barely remember peace. War was common place now and our society lived even under the threat of battles and blood and death. Our society was almost normal though, people in the streets laughing, new racing brooms every year, quidditch cup hosted, only random battles and plots would break out. We got a new minister every year, the last usually assassinated. Most high ups always had guards. Families didn't invite one another over because properties were so heavily warded. But for twenty years Ginny and I had lived a fairly normal life with her children.

So while the children got the best protections rewrapped about them, I started talking to some Goblins. One a healer, cast a spell on me for fun. But then the goblin paused and stared at me and all the other goblins stopped conversing with me and there was a silence that made me wary. Then the healer started talking rapidly to the other goblins. They all asked I to submit to a few spells. I agreed, humouring the frowning creatures. So while the children got protection I was laid down in a Goblin Hospital wing and had a bunch of spells cast on me. Guess what they found in my blood stream."

"I…"

"Guess."

Albus stayed silent.

"Amortentia." Harry breathed, with a breathless laugh. "The greatest love potion. And with it were a variety of compulsion charms and potions. I suppose Ginny mixed them in with the first drinks we had when we met that evening when I was still the Devil. The goblins told me I was dosed to the gills in this stuff for close to twenty years. So much so that even if they could flush it out there would be side affects. Not that they could flush much of it out. They said I would probably always love Ginny and worship her. The feelings would be lessened when the potion was gone but they would go from her being a god, to just the woman of my dreams.

I was angry of course, but at the same time, this was my soul mate, she had obviously done it because she thought it was right and I could never hate her for that. It was and is easy to see that potions left me pretty much changed for life. Even now, I can only think of her fondly. Oh she was a conniving bitch, but she was still my beautiful Ginny. I loved her all the more for her cunning ambition. But there was also a problem with this. She had dosed me, carried three children while I was under the influence of a potion, made me waste twenty years playing husband. She'd taken me from my revenge. I still hadn't killed Neville's killers. And because I hadn't continued on my revenge, all my year mates and the year below me but for me and Ginny were dead. And if there was one thing I had made my goal in life, it was to get revenge. And Ginny had taken that from me. So even though I loved her deeply, she just had to go."

Albus choked quietly to himself, remembering finding the former Weasely's body. He could still remember the pools of blood, red hair fanned about and dripping in it. Hazel eyes wide and staring at nothing, stomach ripped open.

"You…you were the one to kill her?" He choked out, trying to repress the tears.

He had never, they had never, suspected Harry. Harry had vanished of course, but because of the rash of Death Eater deaths after that they had believed it had been an attack and Harry had gone off in a rage afterwards. When he hadn't returned they had started to think, but … Harry had practically fallen off the map for the last five years, other then the odd suspicious Death Eater death.

"If I divorced her I would still love her. A few words from her and I would be a good little boy again. I would probably take the amortentia on her command. So I had to get rid of her. I met her at home and prepared a lovely dinner filled with poison. When she first choked and realized what was happening she retaliated. She was a great dueller. Vicious and blood thirsty. And fast, gods was she fast. She was beautiful in her anger, and I paused. For that I received this."

Harry chuckled as he dragged a long pale finger down the white scar that cut down the left side of his face, over his eye lid and ending on his chin. Albus couldn't think straight. In some ways he wanted to strike this man down for killing Ginny Potter nee Weasely. But then what she had done was just as horrible. Love potions were forbidden for such reasons. To be dosed for twenty years was almost unbelievable.

"Almost lost my eye. I killed her quickly after that, if not brutally. Left her in the dinning room and packed my bag and left. Didn't explain to anyone because truly, I didn't care. I suppose I should thank Ginny. Being so dosed with a love potion for so long did permanent mind damage. Potions are dangerous and quickly become addictive. I was dosed to the point where I wasn't addicted, I was beyond that. My bloodstream is still filled with the stuff. The mind damage is more interesting though. The only feelings I can feel are love for her and the basest of emotions. Amusement, anger, sorrow. But it's never tied to anything. If I find anything funny I laugh. If I find it sad I cry. I would laugh if my hypothetical closest friends died a funny death because it was funny. The love potion also only made me love Ginny. No one else. It literally stopped me from loving anyone else. So _my_ children? I loved them because they were Ginny's, not because they were mine too. In my mind they are Ginny's."

Albus flinched.

"The damage helped greatly you know. When I finally killed her, I was free in a way I never had been. Before I was guided by emotion, guided by hate for Voldemort because he had killed all my family, fuelled for revenge because the Death Eaters had killed all my beloved friends. But with the potion, I was different. I couldn't remember what loving anyone other then Ginny felt like. So in my mind, my parents and Sirius just became casualties of war. I didn't care about their deaths anymore, they were just dead. The only reason I continued on with revenge for my friends was because I needed something to do. Because of Ginny, I didn't care for the war at all anymore. Ginny, my beloved, set me free."

Albus didn't ask why her portrait wasn't here then and why it was naught but ash back at the former Potter residence.

"So that's why I won't join you." Harry said. "Because you never did anything for me. The Order proved useless and still does. And because of Ginny, I'm free of any feelings of obligation or guilt or such to help you."

Albus stayed silent for a long time.

"Voldemort will still come after you." He finally said. "So will his Death Eaters. They know where you live. Our spy has said it is openly known you stay here at Grimmauld."

"Yes, I suppose it is." Harry chuckled blowing out a grim shaped cloud of smoke. "But they shall not bother me."

"Just because you aren't attached to this war anymore, doesn't mean they aren't." Albus said, frustrated. "They'll still come after you. The Order's better now. We can protect you better."

"Why? Why do you care? Are you still hung up on that prophecy?" Harry chuckled.

Albus's silence was his answer. Harry chuckled again.

"I won't be the one to kill him because we've reached an agreement."

"What?" Albus yelled leaping to his feet. "You've met with him? You've _negotiated_ with him?"

Harry eyed the end of his wand and chuckled, pushing it aside with his pipe. Albus shook with anger and frustration and fear. How could he? The saviour of their prophecy had consorted with the enemy.

"He agreed to leave me be." Harry shrugged. "Works for the both of us."

"Why would he leave you alone after almost forty years now of seeking your death?" Albus asked.

"Because he finally realized he didn't need to kill me." Harry said simply. "He realize as long as we're both alive, the prophecy is still in affect and no one else can kill us. Besides that he realized something I found out long ago."

"What?" Albus demanded curtly.

Harry peered at him with poisonous green eyes, lips pulled back in a smile. Shadows fell across him and Albus felt his power saturate the air. Albus suddenly realized why this man was so feared and remembered why he had been called the Devil. Harry wasn't just a mentally damaged man, he was a very powerful unstable man. Albus swore his eyes flashed red for a moment.

"That I'm one of his Horocruxs."

Albus's breath hitched.

"What?" He asked quietly, fearfully.

"When he tried to kill me forty two years ago, on Halloween in my cradle, he made me into a Horocrux on accident." Harry chuckled. "I am a container for a soul. More importantly I am a container for forbidden immortality magic. Look at me Albus. How old do I look?"

Albus actually looked for once. Wizards aged much slower then normal humans and as such Harry's young looks had always been tactfully ignored. But now Albus actually looked.

"No." He said in horror.

Harry smiled at him with the face of an eighteen year old.

"Everyone ignores what's right in front of them." Harry said with a quirky smile, leaning back. "When he possessed me in my fifth year, after Sirius died, he awoke the magic in the Horocrux. And suddenly I wasn't just Harry, I was the result of forbidden ancient immortality magic. So again, why should this war matter to me, when I know he will win and I'll survive long past it with him?"

"You…you…" Albus couldn't think of anything to say.

He let his wand drop because he suddenly understood how foolish it would be to try an attack this man. He sat down heavily in his chair. He opened his mouth a few times but closed them quickly after. For a long while there was silence between them, Harry idly filling the air with smoke shapes and Albus just sitting there trying to absorb everything.

"You are on his side?" Albus finally whispered.

"No." Harry said. "I still don't like him all that much. Far to controlling. Our negotiations didn't end as nicely as you'd think. He knew what I was and wanted to hide me away behind his wards, guarded, protected. I refused. He tried to take me by force. See that jar on the mantle?"

Albus looked up at the area Harry waved to and gagged as he saw a head looking back at him with burning red eyes, floating in some sort of clear goop.

"You killed him?" Albus choked.

"Of course not. That won't kill him. He'll just get a new body. Probably already has. But I showed him I am as dangerous as always. He'll leave me alone now." Harry chuckled.

"Showing off your collection?"

Albus spun, wand already raised at the sound of a new voice. He paused at the sight of a twenty three year old man with shaggy blonde brown hair and gold eyes. Those eyes changed to poison green right before his eyes. Albus knew only one Metamorphous in Britain.

"Teddy?" He breathed. "But…But you disappeared."

Teddy snorted and strode over to Harry, handing him a platter of tea

"Thank you dear." Harry smiled at him.

"What is going on?" Albus demanded. "Teddy vanished five years back and everyone thought he was dead!"

Harry snorted and took a cup of tea, passing it to Albus who accepted blankly.

"Teddy came with me after I killed Ginny. He had always thought something was wrong with me. Said it got worse when he started living with us after Remus and Tonks died when he was ten. I think it was the wolf in him. It could sense the spells on me. When I killed Ginny he came to me, knowing I had done it and left with me. Teddy is the best little Godson ever because of his father's wolf blood. I am his alpha and so he is loyal to the bone."

Teddy shrugged at Albus's look and strode out. Albus watched Harry's eyes follow the boy out. He was horrified by the look in those green eyes.

"Harry!" Albus snapped. "You love your own Godson?"

"I told you, Albus, I can't love anyone but Ginny. She's my soul mate." Harry smiled. "But I must admit, Teddy is very delectable."

"You…I…" Albus quivered with rage. "He's your godson! He's nineteen years younger then you!"

"What does that matter when I look eighteen and will live for a very, very long time?"

Albus fumed silently. Finally he turned and threw his tea cup at the wall, watching the tea drip down. He stood, clenching his fists and banished the chair he had conjured.

"You're not joining the Order." He finally said.

It was both a statement about Harry's choice and a change of heart on Albus's part. He _wouldn't_ let Harry join now. And when he told the rest of the Order about what he had heard, they wouldn't allow it either. He didn't know if his second in command, James Sirius Potter would want to kill Harry Potter after this or not, but Albus wouldn't stop him either way. He had always held his Order back when a few had whispered about how dangerous and loose Harry was, but now…

"Albus, Albus, Albus." Harry drawled. "I'm not the Harry Potter you remember. I'm not the perfect light Golden Boy. I'm not your father."

Albus Severus Potter clenched his fists tighter and turned away.

"I know. That's why next we meet, I will consider you my enemy."

.-.

THE END

.-.


End file.
